Assuming Their Positions
by naybaybay
Summary: Sara and Ray attend a quadruple murder at a convenience store. There, an unexpected event forces Sara to deal with an emotional upheaval. GSR!


Hey everyone, I haven't written any fanfiction in a while, been too busy with life and stuff, but this popped into my little head at about 10pm, it is now 4am and I am finished and going to bed. Enjoy. Goodnight :)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own CSI, if I did own CSI, scenarios such as exampled in this story, might happen more frequently.

Sara and Ray strolled cooly into the convenience store.

"Four dead, one more injured", a young cop spoke to them as they entered.

They surveyed the room. A range of typical convenience store products were strewn across the entire store. The place had a still air about it.

A young couple near the fridge were lying in a pool of blood, each with two bullet holes in their chest. An asian man was draped over the counter, blood and brain dripping from his head. Below him, a shabbily dressed woman had a mixture of coffee and blood spilling from her torso.

"The owner appears to have been shot at close range. The two customers by the fridge, their wounds appear to be through and throughs as well as the woman by the counter", Sara spoke.

Ray shook his head. "The perp succeeded well and truly the first time, but still he went back for more".

Sara looked at him. "Better check the fridge for bullets." Ray nodded in response.

The two CSIs sharply turned around as they heard a commotion ensuing behind them, just

outside in the parking lot.

A young man on a gurney was struggling against paramedics.

"Yo man, I'm fine, let me go, it's her in there you gotta worry about", he slurred.

One of the paramedics pinned him down. "Sir, you have a concussion and a wounded shoulder, you have to stay still. The other victims are all dead, we can't do anything more for them."

The injured man shook his head fervently. "Man that guy was crazy. He was shooting blind, I don't think he even knew what he was doing, must've been on a lot of whatever he was on."

Sara and Ray walked outside to record what the man was saying.

"He walks in with his girl yo, right up to the counter takes out the guy behind the counter without even saying anything and then starts reaching for the dough. These two honeys start screaming so he turns around and shoots them too. I took that as my cue to get out of there man, only the dude saw me and busted one in my arm. Shit, I could barely stay awake, but I wasn't expecting what happened next. His woman, big as a house and high as a kite, drops to the floor and starts screaming like a banshee man. For a second I thought the fool had shot her too. He gets all the cash a looks at her for a while, and she is like begging him. But he just takes off man, leaves her there; pathetic punk."

Sara recorded everything on her note pad, and looked to the man. "At what time did he shoot her?"

The young man looked at her, confused. "Huh?"

Sara blinked. "When did the gunman shoot the woman he came in with?"

The man on the gurney squinted. "Nah, nah, he didn't shoot her, he just left her there, with a god damned baby coming out of her."

Sara and Ray looked at each other quickly. "Baby?" Sara probed the man.

He nodded. "Did the baby die too?"

Neither CSI answered his question, instead they both bolted inside the store, careful not to stand in any blood, they darted from one corner of the store to the other, searching for the woman and possibly her baby, they had just learned were there.

"She can't have gone far in her condition." Sara pointed out.

"No, she'll be in a lot of anguish, the baby will be stressing", Ray said, still searching.

He spotted a side door, and forced it open, trying to see in the dark, but he didn't need to see to know someone was in there.

Ray found the light switch and flicked it on. The light revealed a small storage room, housing goods on shelves around the edges, and in the middle of the floor, a woman in labour.

"Sara, I found her", Ray yelled to Sara, and she came bounding in.

"Damn", she said.

"Sara, I need you to find a towel or a heavy cloth of some sort." Ray administered.

Sara nodded, mainly to herself, and left the room.

"A clean one!", Ray shouted out after her.

"I know", she responded.

Ray lifted the woman's skirt and examined her. "Are you full term miss?"

The woman sort of coughed. "Yeah", she hissed.

"Can you tell me your name?"

The woman sighed "It's Caroline".

"Caroline what?"

"Caroline - ahhh!" She screeched, not being able to finish, as the next wave of contraction hit her.

Ray grimaced. "Your baby is under a lot of duress, miss. I need you to tell me what you've taken today. Is it coke?"

The lady coughed again and shook her head bitterly. "Meth".

Ray exhaled. "Can you tell me who the man is you were with in here earlier today?"

"My sick bastard of a boyfriend." She coughed again. "Ex-boyfriend", she corrected herself.

Sara returned to them with an armful of car cleaning cloths.

Ray took them from her with a short "Thanks".

He placed them under the woman and then leaned over her sweaty figure.

"I'm going to need you to push now."

Sara retorted before the pregnant woman. "Whoa, aren't we going to get her to the hospital first?"

The woman lying on the ground groaned.

Ray shook his head at Sara. "It's too late, she's crowning. We have to do this now."

Sara gulped and then went to her knees, taking the woman's hand.

The woman jerked at Sara's touch, and and began to well up. "Is it gonna die?" She asked feebly.

Sara hesitated before answering. "We're going to everything in our power to help you and your baby get through this."

The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, and with what little strength she had left, she pushed.

Sara felt her hand go numb, as Caroline squeezed it, yelling obscenities and crying. After several minutes of ear splitting screams, a softer, younger scream pierced the air. The new mother sank into the floor while Ray held her son.

"Sara, can you get a medic in here please?"

"Sure", she replied, standing up.

Caroline wheezed. "What are you going to do with him...." As soon as the question was out of her mouth, her head fell back against the cold floor and she was motionless.

Ray eyes bulged. "God dammit. Sara, take the baby."

Sara took a step back, almost rejecting him, but quickly came to her senses when Ray shoved the newborn into her arms.

Ray ran into the main area of the store and called out for help.

Two medics came in with medical equipment, sufficient to revive a patient in V-Tach.

Ray and the medics worked on the woman while Sara stood in the corner, holding the bawling babe. They tried for seven minutes to save the woman's life, but to no avail.

Ray stamped the floor with his fist, and looked up at Sara. "Can you take him out of here?"

Sara stirred from her trance she had been in and nodded.

Ray sat and stared at the body in front of him for several minutes before reaching for his cell and contacting the coroner.

Sara and the two medics went out to the ambulance. She rode to the hospital in the back of the vehicle, the baby boy, still stirring in her arms.

Sara leaned against a wall, looking in through the wide glass window. She took in the peaceful form of one of the many babies in the room inside, and couldn't believe how someone who had been through so much in such a short space of time, could be here now, sleeping, possibly dreaming; if babies have dreams; of a better second day on earth than his first.

Sara heard shoes hitting the floor behind her, and turned out of curiosity to see who was causing the room to echo. She had by no means expected it to be who it actually was.

"Hello", a man with a grey beard greeted her with a small, but tentative smile.

A startled Sara stuttered. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"They told me at the lab, you were here", he replied.

Sara cocked her eyebrow at him "I mean, what are you doing here - in this country?"

"I missed you, wanted to come home early, it's very cold in Paris."

Sara shook her head at him, her gaze shifted to the bright bouquet of flowers in his right hand.

"These are for you, I got 'em at the airport", he told her, holding them out to her.

Sara smiled for the first time that day. "They're beautiful."

Her husband returned the gesture. "Like you", he said.

Sara cast her eyes to the floor, not wanting him to see her cry. Her lips quivered as she lifted her head to look into his eyes.

Grissom stepped forward and took her arms in his hands. He tilted his head gave her a sad smile, and said the only thing he could think of to let her know he was there, completely there, for her.

"Hi."

Sara lost it as she fell into his embrace, Grissom wrapped his arms tight around her and held her for a while, until she calmed down.

He caressed her face. "They said you'd had a rough morning."

Sara nodded. "Ray and I - we delivered him." She pointed to the newborn she had helped bring into the world."

Grissom peered into the window. "He looks ok."

Sara wiped her eyes. "His mother died at the scene. Armed Robbery. 4 dead, what a place to be born huh?"

Grissom studied her silently.

"Is this the first baby you've dealt with since...?"

Sara took in a sharp intake of breath. "Yup."

Grissom nodded understandingly.

Sara then got mad, kicking the wall. "I don't know why I feel so affected, it's not the same thing. This baby survived, ours didn't."

Grissom waited for a while, reeling slightly from her words, still affected by their meaning.

"Well, perhaps this baby survived, but does it really have any sort of a life? As it stands, at this moment, that child has nowhere to go, no one to take care of him or love him. Maybe you feel just as bad about this as you do about our own baby because you can't help feeling that you and him in turn, have both been cheated out of having happiness. If only this baby had been ours. If only ours had been hers, and had died with the one he belonged to, never providing a glimmer of hope to those left behind, just to take it away from us".

Sara sniffed, she had gotten a little lost half way through the sentiment, but she understood its meaning, clearly.

She turned and looked at the little boy again. "He was so small Gil, but still I hoped he would be just big enough and strong enough to battle with the world. But he wasn't."

Grissom felt his throat glands swell up.

Sara blinked, and remained staring at the room full of babies.

"I called him Colin."

Grissom's muscles seized.

Colin. His father's name.

"I thought we decided not to name him", he said softly.

Sara quickly shook her head. "Not him." She turned at looked at her husband again, with eyes burning.

Grissom looked from her to the baby boy she was referring to and felt his heart beat faster.

"Sara.." he paused, licking his lips. "You know you can't do that, you can't do it to yourself..."

"Why not?" Sara cut him off.

Grissom didn't know what to say, so Sara continued.

"Why can't I name him, I am the first woman's touch he ever felt, the first one to look into his eyes, to comfort him and stop him crying, to watch him..." She stopped, willing herself not to cry. "To watch him fall asleep in my arms."

Grissom moved closer to her.

"Gil you said - you said we could look into this, to finding a child of our own, well what other child am I ever going to be able to have that connection with, huh? I want that connection Gil, I want it so badly." Sara covered her mouth with her hand and cried freely.

Grissom took her in his arms again. "I know."

"Please Gil", she cried, her voice muffled against his coat.

"Ok honey, Ok."

1 MONTH LATER

The CSI night shift team were seated in the assignment room, minus one member, Sara.

Catherine was handing out cases to each member of the team.

"Ok, that's all, I'll catch up Sara when she finally gets here, see you all later."

Nick, Greg and Ray headed for the door, when suddenly Sara came running in.

"Hi you guys, I'm sorry I'm late, I had something important to take care of."

"More important than work Sara?" Catherine questioned her.

Sara smirked. "Actually, yes, incredibly enough."

Nick and Greg chuckled. "Gee, this must be important, what was it?" Nick asked.

Sara inhaled. "I'm going to be leaving CSI, for good."

The rest of her team were stunned. "Why?" Greg queried.

"I've recently taken on something that is going to be requiring my full attention, for quite some years, something I'm very happy about, that I think is going to challenge me and that I am really going to enjoy."

Nick became persistent at this point, not wanting to show his hurt. "Well what the hell could be so great enough to leave your friends in the lurch like this again?"

On cue, Gilbert Grissom walked into the room. His eyes sparkled with a joy never seen in him by anyone before. "I believe this little guy might warrant that position."

It took everyone but Sara, several moments to process what exactly was going on. The first to click was Catherine, who merely shrieked in response and jumped on the balls of her feet, running over to hug her friends and their son.

"What's his name?" She asked excitedly, taking the little boy from his father.

Gil answered her. "Colin James Grissom". He put his arm around his wife, who beamed at him.

Gradually, the male CSIs took their turns congratulating the pair and fawning over the baby. When Ray took the baby in his arms, he had a hint of sadness in his smile. Sara touched his arm. "We thought it might be appropriate if the man who delivered him was given the honor of being his Godfather."

Ray's mouth fell open.

"If you want to of course." Sara added.

Ray had to fight tears, while nodding his acceptance.

Grissom turned to Catherine. "You think we can trust you as Godmother?"

Catherine grinned and hit him playfully on the shoulder. "No, but too late, I'm taking that as you asking me." Grissom laughed.

"And of course, we will be more than happy to assume the place and honorary uncles", Greg smiled, Nick nodding along with him.

"Thank you", Sara said to them, hugging them both,

Catherine handed Sara her child and she smiled contentedly at the baby, whose eyes, caught hers in a loving connection. It had taken a month to sort everything out with the hospitals and the courts, but really, she had assumed her place in his life, the moment he was born.

THE END.


End file.
